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So, which year do we find ourselves? A US president, subsequent to lengthy of tacit encouragement, has finally intervened to stop an Israeli military offensive that has transformed swaths of a city in the Middle East to ruins, leaving thousands deceased and sparking worldwide anger.

This military action has followed a succession of strikes on the Israeli nation. Now, facing demands from the US administration, the Israeli prime minister, a right-leaning figure with a talent for populist rhetoric and an intense sense of historic Zionist mission, has agreed to a halt in hostilities.

Historical Parallels

The time period is not the current year, but 1982. The city is not the Gaza Strip, but Beirut. The American president is President Reagan, not the current administration.

There are significant distinctions between what happened in the Lebanese nation over four years past and what has happened in the Gaza Strip in the past two years. The October attack of last year, which caused over a thousand and included two hundred fifty captured, differs significantly with the comparatively limited efforts of the Palestinian leadership in the time prior to the Israeli incursion of Lebanon.

Remarkable Resemblances

Certain parallels are striking. The president ultimately contacted the Israeli leader, stating to him that events in the city was "a holocaust" and saying the relationship between their countries could be gravely damaged if the violence persisted.

At that time, much as today, the war unfolded in live on global media. Hundreds journalists entered the city to report on for the first time an Middle Eastern conflict without censorship by either side.

Results and Outcomes

The situation following the call from American leadership and the ceasefire in the city is revealing. The Palestinian organization, its groups and officials were dispersed across vast distances and a various states.

Washington then withdrew multinational troops – a breach of the agreement with PLO leadership. Bashir Gemayel, Lebanon's recently chosen leader and Israel's preferred proxy, was assassinated by Syrian intelligence.

Middle Eastern Changes

Comparable developments occurred across the wider Middle East. By the end of the 1970s, the increasingly non-religious and progressive ideas that had seemed to offer the potential of a new future in the regional countries previously were discredited.

The consequences of this emerged rapidly, almost immediately

Throughout the area, Israel and the United States now faced enemies who were much more stubborn, dangerous and efficient than the secular movements and patriotic organizations of the past.

Global Approach

Among Western nations, the consequences of this were unexpected. Through the 1970s, western analysts and government representatives had tried to analyze what generated violent extremism.

Then, in the start of the eighties, this stopped. National figures in the America, the UK and elsewhere were lost interest in "fundamental sources" of violence.

Contemporary Echoes

Last week, accounts show that today's officials informed government representatives that the country could not confront global opinion and admitted territorial ambitions for a sovereign entity.

Similarly was an repetition of that earlier period. In the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of the neighboring country, previous leadership told the Israeli government that the power of its armed forces alone could not "establish enduring settlement" and recognized "proper claims of the Arab residents."

Yet a internationally-backed regional peace plan intended to resolve those complaints stalled completely. From exile, Palestinian leadership observed impotently.

Worldwide concern in the area diminished. The nation rejected accommodations. Afterward, there was the initial uprising, and the founding of additional militant groups.

• The cycles of history provide sobering lessons for contemporary peace efforts
• Lasting solutions require confronting fundamental problems rather than temporary ceasefires
• Regional dynamics continue to change in multifaceted and often unpredictable ways